Xbox Live Arcade not profitable

It seems one of the common themes at GDC this year were developers complaining about Microsoft and the XBLA.

First we heard about the Super Meat Boy devs who claimed that Microsoft promised them great coverage in return for exclusivity but then reneged on that promise and promoted it equally with Costume Quest.

The developers subsequently released Super Meat Boy on Steam and sold a ton more.

Now today we are hearing from both Introversion (Darwinia) and Epic (Shadow Complex) who are both claiming that their PC and iPhone sales far outstripped the XBLA sales.

Epic have claimed that even though fan favourite Shadow Complex did really well on the XBLA (500k) and that it was supported well by Microsoft it was eclipsed in less than 3 months by Infinity Blade on the iPhone.

Introversion on the other hand have declared that they will most probably not work with Microsoft again after the sales of Darwinia and Multiwinia didn’t light up the bank balance.

It’s not that they regret working with Microsoft and apparently the XBLA team were good to them and even put them up as deal of the week but the Steam sales were once again far superior with the Steam promotion “An order of magnitude better”.

Personally I just didn’t feel Darwinia was the correct type of title for the XBLA but Shadow Complex was exactly what I thought people would want.

With all these guys pointing out lack of sales on the XBLA could this be the beginning of the end for Microsoft’s attempt at downloadable titles?

I'm cranky, arrogant and ever so amazingly annoying but when you get to know me you will also realise I'm honest and incredibly good at describing myself... now pass me that beer View all posts by Gavin →